Finally, a fire station for Hampton

What a great day it was to actually see shovels hit the ground on Brown Avenue, signifying the official start of construction of new fire station at Hampton Beach.

What a great day it was to actually see shovels hit the ground on Brown Avenue, signifying the official start of construction of new fire station at Hampton Beach.

The project has been talked about for decades and Hampton Beach Village Precinct Chairman Chuck Rage said it best Wednesday, when he said, "I never thought the day would come."

Hampton voters in March approved the new beach substation as part of a $5.75 million two-station plan at the annual Town Meeting.

In addition to the new substation, a $2.6 million addition will be put on the town fire station on Winnacunnet Road.

Getting voter approval for these needed fire facility improvements has not been easy.

In 2006, a $1.7 million proposal for the construction of Fire Department headquarters facilities uptown was defeated by a vote of 2,128 to 1,295.

In 2008, a $6.7 million plan developed by then-Fire Chief Hank Lipe for an addition to the uptown fire station and a new substation at Hampton Beach also was rejected.

In 2011, voters rejected a $7.5 million, two-station proposal.

Why the change of heart from voters?

The previous plans were incomplete.

A lot of credit needs to be given to selectmen, precinct commissioners and current Fire Chief Chris Silver.

It was an easy sell after all the work done by Silver.

Voters gave him the tools to do the job by appropriating $50,000 to develop conceptual plans for constructing an addition to the Winnacunnet Road facility. Selectmen used additional money in the operating budget for plans for a new substation at the beach.

The precinct commissioners relinquished precinct land as part of a land swap with the town so there was an actual place for the new station to be built.

There were no white boards with yellow Post-It notes like in 2008; there was actually something clearly defined for voters to accept or reject.

Even after voters rejected Silver's original $7.5 million proposal for two fire stations in 2011, Silver went back to the drawing board and put together a new plan that was less costly.

A lot can be learned from this project, especially going forward in presenting other major capital projects to voters.

Town Manager Fred Welch said at the groundbreaking held last week that he is pleased all the hard work over the years finally paid off, but more importantly, he stressed what the project means to the community.

"This is for the safety of the community and the safety of our employees," Welch said.

We agree.

The new substation will be a two-story building with four apparatus bays that can actually fit new trucks.

"We could not buy new apparatus because the building is too small and it wouldn't fit," Welch said.

The new beach fire station will also allow the department to vacate the current beach fire station, which was built in 1924.

It's a building that former Hampton Fire Chief William "Skip" Sullivan said should have been condemned when he first started working there in 1968.

In the last six years, problems at the current beach fire station have been well documented, including issues with termites, mold and toxic lead paint, all of which had to be rectified.

On the night of the devastating A Block fire at Hampton Beach in 2010, crews had to vacate the station because of a failed generator, and firefighters were unable to get a pumper truck out of the building because the mechanical door failed to open.

The new beach substation will be a worthy place to house the men and women who put their lives on the line for our community.

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